The baseball uniforms are a unique beast. The shirts have buttons, the pants have belts and all the players need to wear hats in order to keep the sun out of their eyes. But nothing is as unique to baseball as the stirrup sock as baseball team socks.

The tradition can be traced back to 1868, when the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first to become the team to expose their socked legs.

The team’s owners were trying to create a sensation, presumably to boost attendance and also the team’s profile. Pulling up the pants to more closely resemble a cricketer’s uniform also had one other benefit: The high socks displayed manly calves, which the ladies liked.

But Cincinnati’s players only wore regular socks during that time. The garment known as the baseball stirrup socks would not come into existence until 1905. That particular year, Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Naps, would play in only 65 games due to blood poisoning after he was spiked on a slide. Since the clothing dyes were not colorfast in those days, it was assumed that the dye in the fabric had seeped into Lajoie’s wound, causing the injury.

The prime solution: Add a white “sanitary” sock and cover that up with the colored hose, which had a cut out around the ankle so the players could still fir into their cleats.

The stirrup had become part of the visual signature of baseball as no other sport used it. For a certain generation, it was kind of a key moment when they go their first Little League uniform and got to pull up those stirrups.

But while a certain sect of today’s baseball fans thrill to the look of the stirrup, its mere purpose was actually to mimic the original stockings as closely as possible.

Now, the look has endured for over a century- even if its details have changed drastically over the years.

That particular change was largely the end of stirrup innovation until the 1920s, when the striped stirrups showed up, bringing about a new era of human beauty. Standouts include the New York Giants’ stirrups in 1921.